I raised chickens and sold eggs as a young boy. Most of the time, I had flocks of golden comets or sex links. I did have a flock of white rocks when I was a teenager that I really enjoyed and eventually branched out into raising bronze turkeys. Life on the farm was always exciting when you had a rooster that made a lot of noise in the morning!
After living in the city for many years and starting a family, my wife and I wanted our two boys to enjoy raising chicks at our new country place. In the spring of 2008, I ordered a straight run of NH Reds, Buff Orpingtons, White Rocks, Delawares, Barred Rocks, Partridge Rocks and Blue Andalusians from McMurray's Hatchery. Everybody made the trip here alive and well. We have 28 healthy chickens!
Building the coop was a lot of fun! I wanted to create a very traditional shed roof style coop with large overhangs and front windows. I also wanted to use up some of my salvaged lumber pile from my previous remodeling projects. I milled old landscape timbers for the floor and roof framing, and some of the wall framing. I am happy to say that I didn't buy any framing lumber which saved over $100 on our coop. I bought plyboard siding and some pine trim from Home Depot for the windows. The window panes were salvaged from one of my homes. I used roll roofing to save money. I have about $250 into the entire project. The coop is 4' wide X 7' wide which is a good size for 14-15 layers. I am very happy with the way it turned out!

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